Writer of Local and Military History

Recollections of Southend-on-Sea and Neighbourhood 1855-1912

This book is based on the memoirs of Mrs Augusta Mary Tawke, who was born around 1819 at Priors, near Brentwood, Essex, and lived, for the most of her life, by condition of marriage, at The Lawn, Rochford. She was married to Arthur Tawke of Chigwell, Essex, Magistrate of Rochford, and they had one child, Augusta Saumarez Tawke, who was born c1856. Arthur Tawke died on 11 May 1884.
The household members at The Lawn were Mary A. Stock of Hockley (Ladies Maid), Alice Stock of Hockley (Housemaid), Margaret Keeling of Danbury (Parlour Maid), Mary A. Smith of Rochford (Cook) and Adelaide Blowers of Rochford (Kitchen Maid). Details obtained from the 1881 Census of Rochford.

Augusta Mary Tawke’s memoirs had been been recorded by her daughter by 1911 as her mother, then in her 93rd year, was quite blind. She later died on 14 January 1916 at Belgrave, The Cliffs, Southend-on-Sea. Probate on 9 March 1916 settled Augusta Saumarez Tawke (who was a spinster) with effects to the value of £7,049 9s. 6d.

In her memoirs, the reader being taken on a gentle tour around Southend-on-Sea, and will meet some of the tradesmen of Prittlewell, and then stroll towards the sea via Whitegate Corner to meet some of the most interesting and, even taking into consideration today’s generations, most quirky townsfolk.
The reader is then taken to the Terrace by the Royal Hotel and the library opposite, which was frequented and favoured by royalty, and meet some of the residents, including Mrs Pilton, who ran her little shop in the depths of the Shrubbery, and then back around past the fields to where Alexandra Street would be built (this road being taken from a portion of the beautiful garden of Mr John Page). There is a front row seat too, for the visit by special train of HRH Princess Louise to Southend on 9 December 1912, who declared an extension of the Victoria Hospital in Warrior Square open. Invited guests were crowded into the reception room in the Winter Garden at the Palace Hotel for a special afternoon.
A treat is in store, too, as the reader is taken on the first steam train out of Southend -well, as far as Wickford, anyway. The return journey was delayed because of a derailment further up the line, but it is worth noting the differences in the level of interest and enthusiasm towards this new transport system as it has just reached our town! The book also takes the reader to Southchurch, Prittlewell, Rochford, Hawkwell, Hockley, Rayleigh, and Thundersley.
The final chapter includes an extraordinary List of Executions in Essex in the 100 years leading up to 1871: crimes include many highway robberies.

Following the death of Josef Stalin on 5 March 1953, Mr Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov temporarily assumed leadership over both the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers in the USSR, he was quick to announce that the United States had “no longer a monopoly of the hydrogen bomb.”

The declaration was followed by the announcement that test had recently been carried out on several new types of atomic bomb (the Soviets first successfully an atomic bomb in 1949). In response, President Truman approved the development of a hydrogen, or thermonuclear, bomb, in 1950. The nuclear race had begun.

Working on the icy roof of the world during the Second World War, with a sick fear of the dark, desolate waters that would freeze a man as he fell into them, the treacherous weather, fear of attack by the enemy, the uncertainty of reaching home again, the men of the Arctic Convoys carried out their duties to the letter.

The Merchant ships; converted trawlers and cargo vessels, escorted by battleships, destroyers and cruisers of the Royal Navy, all running at the speed of the slowest ship, endured some of the harshest conditions in the world to supply desperately needed tanks, aircraft, guns, ammunition, and raw materials to Murmansk (the only North Russian port which remained ice free all the year round) and Archangel in Russia; a route which took them around the North Cape of Norway, and into the range of a strongly determined enemy who, with warships, submarines and bombers, endeavoured to prevent every Allied ship from reaching the end of its journey. Without their efforts, Russia could easily have become cut off, and the whole outcome of the war, and indeed, our way of life now, could have been very different.

Prestwick Airport is a major international freight hub and is the only airport in Scotland to be connected by rail. It also has the second-longest runway in Scotland, accommodating all types of aircraft with no requirement for future extension. Its aviation history began in around 1913 when it was developed as a pilot training airfield, and during the Second World War it was involved in fitting and maintaining military aircraft delivered from the USA. Post-war, it retained a military role building STOL (short takeoff and landing) utility aircraft while a civilian airport grew alongside to accommodate commercial air travel. Prestwick quickly achieved the status of the trans-Atlantic gateway to Scotland, prompting major expansion work in the 1960s to keep pace with the rising number of passengers. Prestwick sits in third place after Glasgow International and Edinburgh Airports in passenger traffic terms, and in 2016 was selected to become one of Europe’s first spaceports.

Prestwick Airport Through Time (978-1445677699)

Amberley Publishing (15 July 2018) 96 pages (Illustrated)

Birmingham Airport Through Time

Birmingham Airport’s history stretches back to the Second World War when it was requisitioned for use by the military. During the post-war years, races and public events were held at the site and it grew steadily throughout the remaining years of the twentieth century. By the mid-1970s, Birmingham Airport was handling over a million passengers and, in May 1984, the main terminal was opened by the Queen, with capacity for three million passengers, giving opportunity for more routes and an increase of passengers using Birmingham Airport. After the West Midlands County Council was abolished in 1986, ownership was of the airport was transferred to a joint committee of the seven West Midlands District Councils. Subsequently, the old terminal at Elmdon was turned over to cargo, and the old terminal building protected with ‘Listed’ status.

On 20 October 2003, Concorde made her final visit to Birmingham Airport on as part of her farewell tour. In July 2007, Birmingham was voted the best airport in Europe in the 5 million to 10 million passengers per year category.

Birmingham Airport Through Time (978-1445664101)

Amberley Publishing (15 June 2017) 96 pages (Illustrated)

Manchester Airport Through Time

The involvement of the City of Manchester with aviation dates back to the first steps which man took to raise himself into the realm of flying. In 1785, James Sadler had become the first man to take to the air from Manchester when his balloon ascended from a garden on the site of which Balloon Street is now located.

In 1928, the Manchester City Council led the country in resolving to have a municipal airport, and Barton was used until 1938 before Ringway was selected as the new site in order to accommodate the bigger and more powerful airliners which were coming into use. During the Second World War, the aerodrome became the main training centre for Britain’s airborne forces, and it was then that the first runways were laid down. It was known as Manchester (Ringway) until 1955, and remained in the hands of the Greater Manchester Council until 1974, when a joint governing body was set up which took the title ‘Manchester International Airport Authority’.

Manchester Airport was honoured at the annual Travel Weekly Globe Awards in 2012, where it was named ‘Best UK Airport’. This was the fourth time that Manchester had picked up the best UK Airport award, one of the few award ceremonies where the winners are voted solely by the industry.

The airport is now the third largest in the UK.

Manchester Airport Through Time (978-1445663906)

Amberley Publishing (15 February 2017) 96 pages (Illustrated)

The Southend & District Roll of Honour 1914-1921

An A to Z of 2,152 of His Majesty’s servicemen, who were either born in, or moved to, the following areas at the time they were called to service in the Land, Air and Sea forces: Southend-on-Sea, Southchurch, Thorpe Bay, Shoeburyness, Foulness, Barling, Westcliff-on-Sea, Leigh-on-Sea, Hadleigh, Thundersley, Benfleet, Canvey Island, Rochford, Hawkwell, Hockley, Rayleigh, Wickford, Vange, and Pitsea, and who fought and fell during the Great War, or died as a result of war between 1914 and 1921.
Each file includes a biography, service numbers, details of their regiments, theatres of battle and of actions, personal letters, and citations where medals were issued. There are also several aliases which appear instead with only a reference to their real names.

Shoreham is the oldest airport in the UK, aviator Harold Piffard first flying from there in 1910, although the aerodrome only officially opened on 20 June 1911. It served as a base for Alliott Verdon Roe (founder of Avro) and John Alcock (one of the first men to fly the Atlantic). At the start of the First World War, the first flight of British military aircraft left from Shoreham to join the fighting in France. In the 1930s the airfield became an airport for Brighton, Hove and Worthing and a new terminal building in the art deco style was opened in 1936. This building is still in use today and is now Grade II listed.

During the Second World War, Shoreham again served as a military airfield, coming under attack several times. The airfield is still operational today and is used by light aircraft and flying schools and as a venue for an air show and a filming location.

Shoreham Airport – An Illustrated History (978-1445633442)

Amberley Publishing (15 July 2015) 160 pages (Illustrated)

Essex Witches

James VI of Scotland became James I of the United kingdoms of Scotland and England in 1603, and by the end of the first year of his accession he had produced a new edition of his book, ‘Daemonologie’, written to counter those who argued against the belief in witchcraft and demonic magic. He also convinced Parliament to pass The Witchcraft Statute which was the foundation for the legal definition of the crime of witchcraft in many jurisdictions in England and served as the main link between the practice of harmful magic and the alleged worship of the devil.

Throughout the period of the English Civil Wars (1642-49), the previously unheard of Matthew Hopkins assumed the title of Witch-finder General, and brought for trial and examination those accused of Witchcraft.

Essex Witches (978-0752499802)

The History Press (1 October 2014) 160 pages (Illustrated)

Voices From the Arctic Convoys

With the invasion of Russia by Germany in 1941, Britain gained a new ally and a responsibility to provide material for the new front. More than four million tonnes of supplies such as tanks, fighters, bombers, ammunition, raw materials and food were transported to Russia during a four-year period. The cost was high and by May 1945, the campaign had seen the loss of 104 merchant ships and sixteen military vessels, and the thousands of seamen they carried. The Arctic route was the most arduous of all convoy routes. The ever-present threat of attack from German U-boats and Luftwaffe bombers such as the dreaded Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor were not all the Arctic convoys had to contend with. They had to deal with severe cold, storms, fog, ice floes and waves so huge they tore at the ships armour plating. It is to the memory of these brave men that this book is dedicated and the stories of the immeasurable contribution they made to the Allied efforts during the Second World War have been collected for this book by their veteran comrades.

At the turn of the 20th century, an exciting new invention had everyone transfixed. The radio brought the world into people’s homes and for young Eric Kirkham Cole it was a chance to experiment, as he built ‘Cat’s Whiskers’ radio devices at his parents’ kitchen table. Never could he have imagined then how his unique talent would be used to defend Britain from Nazi invasion, nor how his small radio set business which he set up in his garden shed in 1922 – the same year the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was formed – would become an international brand designing the must-have gadgets of the day.

From radios with station dials, car radios, convection heating, fluorescent lighting, to the first genuine portable television, E.K.Cole Ltd (EKCO) dominated the market for over four decades. EKCO is less known for its role in the birth of radar, developing tactical radar for the V-bombers, groundbreaking military and civilian airport and airborne radar systems, as well as vital equipment for the medical and nuclear industries. EKCO even provided the technology behind Britain’s first guided missile. Subsidiary EKCO factories carried out secret manufacturing work for the British government during the Second World War and it has recently been revealed that EKCO modified radios for use as listening devices for Bletchley Park to decode Enigma-encoded signals and that EKCO employees were so highly skilled, many were employed on the Enigma monitoring duties.

This book, with narrative by Eric’s son, Derek Cole, and many former employees, reveals not only the history of this great Essex company from 1924 to its sudden takeover in 1966, but the passion and talent of the people who once worked there. EKCO was much more than just a radio factory.

EKCO Sounds (978-0957063532) Kindle ASIN: B00JF8DAKK

Estuary Publishing (1 March 2014) 140 pages (Illustrated)

Edinburgh Airport Through Time

The land around Turnhouse Farm was converted to a military airfield following a Zeppelin attack on Edinburgh in 1916. Known as RAF Turnhouse after 1918, the site served as a base for fighter squadrons defending Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth. Edinburgh Corporation first expressed interest in February 1944 in operating civilian flights from Turnhouse after the war and in 1946 British European scheduled the first flight between Edinburgh and London. Turnhouse officially opened as a civil airport in 1949 but the site was not fully demilitarised until 1960. Passenger numbers began to increase and in 1976 a new runway was built. Between 1983 and 1984 passenger numbers at Edinburgh exceeded 1 million; for the twelve months to November 2007, they exceeded 9 million.

Edinburgh Airport Through Time (ISBN: 978-1445615370)

Amberley Publishing (15 October 2013) 96 Pages (Illustrated)

Southend Airport Through Time

Southend Airport, one of the six main airports serving London, began life as a landing strip for pleasure flying. The largest flying ground in Essex, it was established by the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War as part of London’s air defence network. During the Second World War, the RAF requisitioned the airfield and it served as a Spitfire base during the Battle of Britain and was an important fighter station for the rest of the war. Southend’s potential as a gateway to Europe was finally realised with the construction of two runways during the 1950s. During the 1960s, it was one of the busiest airports in the country and home to some of the most innovative aircraft designs of the time. An increase in the length of the runways and in the number of services operated mean that Southend will continue as a gateway to Europe into the twenty-first century.

Southend Airport Through Time (ISBN: 978-1445610122)

Amberley Publishing (15 September 2012) 96 pages (Illustrated)

RAF Southend 1940-1944

This was my first published book, and focuses on the airport’s role between October 1940, when it became a fighter station within 11 Group RAF, and August 1944, when its role was that of an armament practice camp. It describes the manning and maintenance of the forward fighter station, often under attack, and follows the varying fortunes of the staff and personnel who were posted there, and the highs and lows of the events, occasionally tragic, that occurred on and around the aerodrome. It also gives in-depth details of the numerous defensive and offensive operations carried out by the various RAF fighter squadrons during their time based at Southend. Through interviews with ex-staff and eyewitnesses, and the meticulous cross-referencing of original material, this book makes will make a fascinating read for anyone with an interest in local, aviation or military history.